SFJAZZ presents the Omar Sosa GFS Trio, featuring Paolo Fresu and Trilok Gurtu
Robert M. Miner Auditorium
SFJAZZ Center, 205 Franklin St, San Francisco, CA 94102 USA
7:00 PM, Sunday, April 23, 2017

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2017 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2017 event list! ☸ On to the next event!

[7:05 PM lights down, announcements from Randall Kline, band out]

1. [7:10 PM] (unidentified tune #1) φ
2. [7:20 PM] (unidentified tune #2) φ
3. [7:32 PM] (unidentified tune #3) φ
4. [7:46 PM] (unidentified tune #4, mostly (?entirely?) without Paolo) ©
5. [8:03 PM] (unidentified tune #5, without Trilok) †
6. [8:11 PM] (unidentified tune #6) †φ [8:19 PM Paolo swaps back to fulgelhorn]
   [set ends 8:28 PM]
    
   Encore
7. [8:29 PM] (unidentified tune #7) φ
   [show ends 8:43 PM]

• Paolo Fresu: † trumpet, φ flugelhorn, electronics;
• Trilok Gurtu: tabla, © cajon, percussion, vox;
• Omar Sosa: piano, keyboards, percussion, vox.

Aside from Randall's introduction, there was very little talking tonight, and given my lack of familiarity with the music of this trio, the result is a pretty useless setlist. I did make a few additional notes about who was doing what when, but not enough to really count, and overall, I'm going to rate my effort here tonight as only slightly better than a total failure! I know Omar played percussion on the piano (with wire brushes) on two tunes, for example, but which ones? Darned if I can remember now!

The show, on the other hand, was consistently interesting. While a couple of the tunes seemed to follow a traditional head - jam - head pattern, some of them seemed to be more just vamps or groove statements that functioned as a base for the participants to invent responses and conversations. Tune #4 consisted mainly of drum-talk traded back and forth between Trilok and Omar (who seemed surprisingly fluent … a surprise because I don't recall ever hearing him sing drums before. Maybe it's something new he picked up from working with Trilok?). Anyways, it was a fun night, even though I can't tell you much about what they played!

In the encore, Paolo began playing a very la-la-la-ish line on his flugelhorn, and picking up on it, Omar got the crowd to start singing along – we can all join together with the band – and once that was going solidly well, Paolo walked offstage to play from the floor of the hall, then moved on to a spot about six or seven rows up on the Stage Right stairway. Must have been pretty cool to be down in the main hall for that one; from my spot in the upper balcony, I could hear him fine, but it was really tough to see him, even with the house lights turned up.

Back to the previous event! ☸ Up to the 2017 yearbox! ☸ Up to the 2017 event list! ☸ On to the next event!